Burnham orders records search over Manchester City dinners

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has asked officials in Greater Manchester to carry out a fresh search of records covering his past contacts with Manchester City.

Mr Burnham said he had asked the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the body he led as mayor for almost a decade until June, to conduct a "manual trawl" of the records. He said he had asked it to search "everything" to ensure "full transparency", BBC.

The request follows questions over two occasions when Mr Burnham dined with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak at matches at the Etihad in 2017 and 2018. Mr Burnham previously declared the two dinners as hospitality valued at a combined total of £1,000. Records of the two dinners have been deleted from the combined authority's website, BBC.

A statement from the combined authority mentioned an informal meeting between Mr Burnham and Mr Al Mubarak in the stands at a 2019 match and a formal meeting at the UK government's Global Investment Summit in October 2021. It did not specify the two dinners.

At Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch told Mr Burnham the issue was not "going away".

The questions have arisen after an independent commission found Manchester City broke Premier League rules over a nine-year period to 2018 by creating "sham" contracts to funnel more than £830m into football operations, BBC. The findings covered nine seasons from 2009-2010 to 2017-2018, Al Jazeera, with the club found guilty on all but one of 115 alleged breaches, Reuters.

Manchester City denies wrongdoing and has lodged an appeal against the commission's findings.